Some people like eSports. Others think the idea of broadcasting competitions of people going at it in Starcraft 2, Black Ops or Halo: Reach won't ever get mainstream media attention. But it turns out that it may not be necessary, if the new numbers released by the Major League Gaming promotion are any indication.

I've been fascinated with eSports for most of the nearly seven years I've been writing…
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MLG hosts six marquee Pro Circuit tournaments each year, supported by all available to watch via dedicated real-time streams and this just-ended season's proved to be their biggest ever. So what does that mean in actual numbers? MLG's saying that more people watched their streams than tuned into several major cable networks during their Pro Circuit tournaments. More impressively, the promotion's unique visitors more than doubled when compared to 2010, with 3.6 million hours of video watched during the championship weekend alone. It's numbers like this—coupled, of course, with the prize money that the best players win—that will make MLG and the profile of eSports harder to ignore in the years to come. The United States may not be Korea yet, with mobs of people thronging around pro gamers, but it may very well get there.